PCA/NASA at Sonoma Oct 9-10

[ZOA NOM]

For those interested, The RPM team will be racing with NASA, and I'll be running with PCA. I've highlighted the groups on the attached schedule.

[Mike Ramos]

For those interested, The RPM team will be racing with NASA, and I'll be running with PCA. I've highlighted the groups on the attached schedule.

Gentlemen,

A few races ago, several FJ owners attending the race climbed into a couple of cars and visited a little airport (between races) just up the road a few minutes from the Sonama Race Track.

I was there with my family (on our way to the races) & was pleasantly surprised to see familiar & such handsome faces.....  my brothers inquired if they were really FJ riders and I replied in the affirmative.  My brothers observing that they seemed so normal - proceeded to ask of me "what happened to you??!!"   

At that little airport my brothers have an old airplane and hot dogs, chips, soda & usually a few beers in the frig.  They will be there again Saturday (the 9th) with plenty for anyone who can stop by, either on your way to or between races, or even afterwards as they usually stay 'till dark.  No set time for the food, depends on the race schedule.

At the main entrance along side the road there is a large sign "Airplane Rides".  Can't miss it.  Their plane is a yellow high wing Fairchild, easy to see in front of the hanger.

Good luck to those racing!

Ride safe,

Midget

[ZOA NOM]

Followup - Started off with with high expectations, car was ready to go, as was I. Warmup Saturday morning was a warning of the shit-show to come...

Made the mistake of making some last-minute sway bar setting adjustments to address some oversteer I had experienced at the last event. Three of four corners of the car were accessible without removing a wheel. The right front wouldn't cooperate, so a quick jack up, remove the wheel, make adjustment, set her down and Bob's your uncle... Until I was sitting on the grid waiting to head out on track, when it dawned on me I had only spun the wheel lugs back on with the driver, and not torqued with the wrench... FUCK.  While everybody else heads out, I veer right back to the paddock for help from a neighbor who happened to be working on his car, and quickly grabbed his torque wrench and tightened me up. Off to the back of the pack...

Now I get a lap or so in, and the car is all over the place, and the brake pedal is soft and intermittently applying pressure to the pads when my foot does, so I've had enough and come back to the paddock. I get the rear up in the air and find that my pads are very thin, so I go looking for a spare set from another racer, and find a set. While replacing them, I feel what feels like a loose bearing on one side, but it turned out the axle nut had loosened a little, which explained the spongy and intermittent brakes. "Jesus, anything else?" I think to myself... Oh yeah, it gets worse...

I get all these issues squared away, put my sway bar settings back to where they were, strap on brand new set of sticker tires for qualifying and I'm ready to go. The bad news is that they grid you for qualifying by your lap times in warmup. Dead last. It's ok, I just need clear track, doesn't matter where I start. Out we go and I get past the slowest backmarkers into a nice gap and start to roll. I manage three laps (one of them a personal best, and good enough for 7th in class) and my ECU quits sending 12v to the fuel pump or the injectors. Thanks for the tow back to the paddock after sitting in the infield for the rest of the session.

I swap out three fuel pump relays, then swap out the pump itself, and then put it back in when it works fine when 12v is applied with a jumper. Finally swap my ECU into another car to confirm, and I'm screwed for the weekend unless I can find a spare ECU.

The race car has a twin sitting on a lift in my garage at home, so I decide to make the 1-hour trip back to get that ECU and use it for Sunday's races. Of course, the two cars are a year apart, so the performance chips inside are two different versions, and not compatible. (One is a 24-pin IC and the other is 28-pin) This means I have to run the race car on a factory stock fuel map. Turns out it was worth almost three seconds per lap.

So I got the ECU, fired up the race car, and was finally optimistic about Sunday. It was good to see Ramos, Andy and Zari again. They brought lots of support and enthusiasm when I needed it.

Sunday morning's race started great, albeit from the back of the pack because I had no lap time from Saturday's race.  Here's a clip that chronicles the first lap until I ran out of talent under heavy braking into the hairpin at T11.

Then the Afternoon Race came, and the Boxters brought their A-game...  T10 Shit-Show


Suffice to say I was elated to drive the car back into the trailer and head home Sunday. I need to rest up for next season.